History ComicBook / RatQueens

'''''Rat Queens''''' is a ComicBook by KurtisWiebe and RocUpchurch for ImageComics. Set in and around the fantasy town of Palisade, Rat Queens follows the adventures of a typical AdventuringParty on a quest for gold and glory. The storytelling tone is light and playful, weaving between {{deconstruction}} and {{reconstruction}} freely, and tropes are played with, averted, inverted and turned inside out.

* ActionGirl The basis of the book. Betty, Dee, Violet and Hannah are one of the two groups that completely fought their way clear [[spoiler:of the assassins]], and are quite capable of dishing out severe damage even when surprised or when one member of the group is disabled.
* AddedAlliterativeAppeal Betty does this in issue 2.
* AmazonBrigade The Rat Queens themselves.
* AttackPatternAlpha "Betty Climber" is successfully executed. A "White Screamer" is also mentioned, but interrupted by the severe injury of Hannah before we can see what it looks like.
* TheBigGuy The Four Daves. All four of them.
* BuffySpeak Violet and Betty both do this at various times.
* CasualDangerDialogue Much of the group's banter in combat is this.
* CallARabbitASmeerp Betty, who is referred to as a "Hobbit" in promotional material, is a "Smidgen" in the book. Presumably, the Tolkien estate's lawyers dusted off the speech they gave to GaryGygax back in the day.
* ClusterFBomb Cursing in this book is NOT censored, and all four of the girls have fairly foul mouths.
* ColossusClimb The Betty Climber starts as a FastballSpecial and turns into this.
* {{Deconstruction}} Of fantasy role-playing and HighFantasy comics.
* DualWielding The way Betty wields her daggers is this; also Violet with her twin wakizashis.
* {{Fanservice}} The female characters who are the focus of the party for the most part dress like you would expect professional killers-for-hire to dress. Hannah and Dee's costumes are light, Betty's is cut for maximum freedom of movement, and Violet wears fairly reasonable body armor.
* FantasyCharacterClasses Betty is a Thief, Dee is an atheist Cleric, Hannah is a Wizard, and Violet is a Fighter.
* FantasticRacism Hannah and Violet engage in a round of ElvesVersusDwarves at an inopportune time.
* FastballSpecial The "Betty Climber" is a modified version of this - rather than throwing any member of the party, Dee crouches with Violet's shield and is used as a launching platform for Violet and Betty to attack the enemy.
* FlatEarthAtheist [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with Dee. Dee is an atheist but she seems to be reasonable in why she doesn't believe in the gods (explicitly citing the god she was raised to serve as ridiculous), and the world has not given particular reason for either belief or disbelief in any gods. In Dee's words, "I'm Goddess enough for me."
* HardDrinkingPartyGirl Every member of the party can very definitely hold her liquor.
* HealingFactor Not exactly, but Dee's magic can repair an arm that's nearly been torn off of the person it's (barely) attached to, and bring someone back from the brink of death.
* KatanasAreJustBetter Averted in a big way. Violet has a pair of wakizashi in her arsenal but mostly uses them as a backup weapon.
* MeaningfulName The Four Daves are a party of four men, all of them named Dave.
* OneSteveLimit [[AvertedTrope The Four Daves]] explicitly avert this.
* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Explicitly invoked. Violet is noteworthy because she shaves her DwarvenBeard and left the dwarf community to seek her fortune with non-dwarves.
* OurElvesAreBetter Definitely Averted. Hannah and Tizzie are just as aggressive, alcoholic, violent, and shallow as the others surrounding them.
* PrecisionFStrike At the end of issue 2. "Ahh... fuck buckets."
* PsychoLesbian Averted. Betty is an unhinged little bundle of murder but that's pretty much par for the course for [[AnAdventurerIsYou adventurers]] in this world. Outside of battle she's as sweet and cute as you would imagine a halfling to be.
* TheRival The Peaches, introduced in the first story arc, may be this for the Rat Queens, but more likely it's just that Hannah and Tizzie, the leader of the Peaches, get under each other's skins.
* SacrificialLamb The Obsidian Darkness are an all-elf party of [[LargeHam large, gothic hams]]. They are eliminated by the assassins by the middle of Issue #1.
* TitleDrop Since the title of the comic is also the name of the adventuring party including the main characters, it happens fairly regularly.
* UnusualEuphemism "Nrygoth's ballsack!"

* XMeetsY "[[BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy]] meets TankGirl in a LordOfTheRings world on crack!"

* BloodlessCarnage is mostly averted, but [[spoiler:Hannah's nearly-torn-off arm]] in issue #2 is way, way less bloody than you'd expect.
* BetterThanSex Explicitly invoked in Issue #2. "Dee, I'd seriously give up sex for healing spells." "Let's not go crazy, now."
* TheCaper Issue #3: First a failed one, then a successful one. Betty is considerably better at this than Hannah, for reasons that are probably obvious (namely, one's a thief and the other's a wizard).
* DrunkenSong Issue #2: We read what is presumably the ending of either a verse or the chorus. "And the old wizard fumbled in the gloom, As he reached out for his trusty broom/But he was in for a vulgar shock, When he firmly gripped his horse's cock, OHHHHHHH!"
* EyeScream Issue #2, again: Betty kills a [[spoiler:giant troll]] by stabbing him through each eye. Gets the eyes as spell components for Hannah, too.
* KilledMidSentence The [[spoiler:assassin]] at the end of issue #1, in a tremendous way.
* HangoverSensitivity Explicitly invoked in the preview and issue #2
* LudicrousGibs The Queens are drenched in them by the KilledMidSentence example above.
* PreAssKickingOneLiner "To the slaughter, my [[TitleDrop Rat Queens]]!"
* PreMortemOneLiner The assassin in Issue #2 fails at this miserably.
* ToAbsentFriends Issue #2: "To the lucky dead, who will not be feeling this hangover tomorrow." "To the lucky dead."

* PrecisionFBomb At the end of issue 2. "Ahh... fuck buckets."

* UnusualEuphemism "Son." "Of." "A." "Kitten."

The Rat Queens are a group of beer-swilling, loudly foul-mouthed, mercenaries operating out of the tiny town of Palisade. A fairly standard setup for a comic book that's not taking the DungeonsAndDragons world too seriously, but with the twist that all four of said mercenaries (and a near-majority of their allies and rivals in Palisade as well) are women. A new title by KurtisWiebe and RocUpchurch for ImageComics. Rat Queens provides a humorous counterpoint to the official DungeonsAndDragons and Pathfinder comics. Many of its tropes are explicitly invoked, averted, or played with and each character provides at least one major twist on her main archetype.

* PsychoLesbian Averted. Betty is an unhinged little bundle of murder but that's pretty much par for the course for [[AnAdventurerIsYou adventurers]] in this world.

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The Four Daves are a party of four men, all of them named Dave.

* LesYay Betty.

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* BottleFairy Every member of the party can very definitely hold her liquor.

* ActionGirl The basis of the book. Betty, Dee, Violet and Hannah
* TheBigGuy The Four Daves
* BottleFairy Every member of the party can very definitely hold her liquor

* FlatEarthAtheist [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with Dee. Dee is an atheist but she seems to be reasonable in why she doesn't believe in the gods (explicitly citing the god she was raised to serve as ridiculous), and the world has not given particular reason for either belief or disbelief in any gods.

* KilledMidSentence The [[spoiler assassin at the end of issue #1]], in a tremendous way.

!! This show provides examples of:

!! Episodes of this series provide examples of:

* DiedMidSentence The assassin at the end of issue #1

* DiedMidsentence The assassin at the end of issue #1

The Rat Queens are a group of beer-swilling, loudly foul-mouthed, mercenaries operating out of the tiny town of Palisade. A fairly standard setup for a comic book that's not taking the DungeonsAndDragons world too seriously, but with the twist that all four of said mercenaries (and a near-majority of their allies and rivals in Palisade as well) are women. A new title by KurtisWiebe and RocUpchurch for ImageComics. Rat Queens provides a humorous counterpoint to the official DungeonsAndDragons and Pathfinder comics.

* OurElvesAreBetter Definitely Averted. Hannah and Tizzie are just as aggressive, alcoholic, violent, and shallow as the others surrounding them.

* PsychoLesbian [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. Betty is an unhinged little bundle of murder but that's pretty much par for the course for [[AnAdventurerIsYou adventurers]].

* The guidelines for listing show-level tropes apply to this list, too. Alphabetical by trope title.
* List of tropes that are only seen in a single episode or a small handful of episodes.
* Tropes ''about'' episodes, like BottleEpisode, are prime examples.
* This list may also include tropes relating to a secondary or tertiary character or location.